Designed to Heal

Bioengineers attempt to mimic, our body’s remarkable self-healing quality by developing artificial tissue material. Now they have added the molecular equivalent of Velcro to their recipe for hydrogel. The jelly-baby-like material can glue itself back together with enough strength to support its own weight (pictured left). And it holds firm even when stretched (right). With their high water content, these stretchy squishy self-healing gels effectively mirror the texture of natural tissue. In fact this gel could work better than stitches for sealing tears that occur in stomach perforations. Hydrogels can also be loaded with drugs for release in specific areas. And now they are being designed for environments with different acid levels. This means they could even be used to treat stomach ulcers in their highly acidic surroundings.

Written by Tristan Farrow

Tristan Farrow

Writer

British Science Association Media Fellow. He holds a degree in quantum physics from the University of Cambridge and a Research Fellowship in quantum effects in biology.

• Shyni Varghese
• Dept of Bioengineering, UCSD, USA
• Originally published under Creative Commons (CC-BY 2.0)
• Published in PNAS